Do We Dare?
by SavingBreeTanner
Summary: What if Riley had, been telling the truth about Diego the whole time? How might of the story gone if things were true? Bree's PoV


**Saving Bree Tanner TwiContest**

**Title: Do We Dare?**

**Rating: T  
**

**Main Players: Bree**

**Word Count: 3,213**

**Disclaimer:****Twilight is not mine; this amazing creation belongs to Stephanie Meyer.**

**To see other Contest entries, please visit the Contest's FanFiction page:**

**http:/www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/u/2450360/**

When Diego never returned with Riley, I became fearful, suspicious and lonely. There was a feeling in the back of my now spacious mind that Riley was lying about Diego's apparent surveillance mission on the enemies. I hoped with every fiber of my being that it was indeed true and I would see him again soon.

I sat with Fred and watched, bored, as the rest of the coven faced off against one another practicing their fighting. I was not a fighter; I would be long gone from here if I weren't so curious about what the plan was for everyone and what the lie entailed. There was no doubt about it. Riley was lying about something. What that was I didn't know, yet.

All the screaming, ripping and shredding was starting to wear on my nerves, I think I was even developing a twitch. I so couldn't wait until tomorrow night when Riley would reveal everything to us.

Maybe I was just becoming immune to Fred's talent or maybe he had managed to control it so it would only target certain people, I didn't know, but his talent wasn't affecting me like it normally would and for that I was grateful. Together we ignored the psychotic, bloodthirsty ones attempting to rip each other apart for the rest of the night.

The next morning, I was less than astonished when Riley informed us about us being all right in the sun. Although his story about how there was only these four special days for us to be okay, seemed a bit farfetched. On the other hand, I was shocked to learn that we would be moving on the enemy in a few short hours.

I found it incredibly difficult to concentrate on the little details regarding Riley and his plans when my mind continued to wonder to the dark-haired vampire I was starting to have feelings for and his somewhat unexplained disappearance. Considering I had only really known Diego for a couple days, I was curious as to the instant bond we had seemed to develop between us. Out of all the other twenty some vampires, I had never felt comfortable around them, let alone develop a friendship with any of them. Other than Diego, Freaky Fred was the only other member of the group that I was remotely comfortable around.

Diego was a whole other story. He helped me when he didn't have to. He offered me food when he could have taken it for himself. We laughed, experimented and traveled together. We had come to the same conclusion about Riley. He held my hand and hugged me…he even kissed me. There was definitely something between us and if there truly was a God out there, maybe he would give us the chance to explore these feeling further, together.

"Alright kids, lets head out." Riley's order to move out shook me from my reverie.

I hesitantly pulled myself from the book I wasn't reading and stuck close to Fred as we slowly followed behind our other coven members, neither of us wanting to get too close to the herd. They were all too eager and too excited about this so-called dessert to notice a couple of stragglers. I could care less about the dessert. Yes, she smelled very appetizing but my only priority was finding Diego and getting out of situation.

Fred grabbed me by the arm suddenly and came to an abrupt halt. "Riley will be incapable of thinking of me for about twenty minutes," Fred told me, his voice casual and familiar, like we were best friends in the past. "I've been testing the duration and the distance my talent will work at, he'll feel sick if he even attempts to remember me."

"Really? That's so cool."

Fred smiled. "I've been playing around, learning what I can and can't do. I can make myself invisible to others now. If I don't want them to look at me, no one can."

"I've been noticing a difference in how I've been feeling around you," I said, then paused and guessed. "You're not going to the battle are you?"

"Of course not," Fred shook his head. "It's obvious we're being lied to. I'm not going to be Riley's puppet and put my life on the line for someone I've never even met." Fred had figured it out all on his own; he was just as suspicious of Riley as Diego and I were.

"I was going to take off earlier, but I wanted to talk to you before I left, and there hasn't been a chance 'till now," his eyes watched the receding group and the dust that was setting after them, watching for anyone who lingered behind to listen in.

"I wanted to talk to you, too," I said. "Riley's been lying about the sun. This four-day _thing_ is a total hoax. I'm sure Shelly, Steve, and the others figured it out, too and that's why they aren't here. On any normal day, we don't burn up at all when the sun hits us." I paused, deliberating over the next set of words. "There are a lot more political principles' going on here than Riley's told us about. There are more than one set of enemies, some wear these long dark cloaks." I said hastily.

The slow movement of the sun indicated that time was still passing, and was drawing out my need to get to Diego, taunting with the fact that he still hadn't returned.

"I'm not surprised," Fred said calmly. "And I'm out of this morbid game of chess. I'm going to travel around on my own, see the world. I _was _planning on going out on my own, but then I thought, maybe you might want to come along, too. You'd be pretty safe with me. No one will be able to follow us or want to." I hesitated for a second. The idea of safety was hard to resist in that exact moment.

"I've got to go get Diego first and then we can head out on our own," I said, shaking my head almost violently.

He nodded sympathetically. "I agree. If you're willing to vouch for him, he can join us. It seems to me that sometimes numbers come in handy and that we would be better off with another member. I was thinking about heading to Vancouver since I know the area. Do you want me to join you in getting Diego then we can head south?"

"I agree too. Please help me, let's go find Diego before the fighting begins and we lose him for good," I said a silent prayer to whoever was listening that we would find him in time.

Simultaneously we took off like a set of darts, both of us impatient to find our friend and new coven member before it was too late. We followed the trail of our old coven, hoping they would lead us straight to Diego and we wouldn't have to do much searching.

I snarled viciously when a pair of strong, yet gentle arms wrapped around me, catching me completely off guard. I writhed, wriggled and fought to get away from my assailant, instinct told me this was a bad situation. Where was Fred while I struggled with this sudden attacker?

"Bree, I'm so glad to see you!" the arms tightened slightly around my chest. The voice and scent of my enemy was so familiar I nearly fell to my knees as relief overwhelmed me.

"You can calm down now," Fred huffed from somewhere behind me.

I don't even remember moving but in an instant, I found myself hugging my assailant. I kissed his cheeks repeatedly while my arms enclosed around his neck tightly. "Oh Diego, I was so worried. I feared Riley had been lying about your surveillance on the enemy."

He attempted to hush me but his grip on me didn't loosen in the slightest and I buried my face in his neck. "Bree, they aren't our enemy."

His statement surprised me and I reluctantly extracted myself from his embrace. What had he learned during his observation of the ones with yellow eyes? I stared at his curiously, begging with my eyes to elaborate his meaning.

"While I was watching them, one approached me. Edward, he is the mind reader and, basically I was trapped. He explained that they weren't the enemy that they would only be defending themselves when the newborns attack. He told me the _real_ reason for the vast amount of new vampires. _She's_ creating an army." He looked down at me with sad eyes and I could tell he was searching for the correct words. "Edward says they killed _her_ mate because he was trying to kill his, which is the human girl we were told about. Victoria, that's her name, wants revenge against Edward. 'Mate for mate' is how she put it."

I stared at him for a while, dumbfounded by his words and explanation. We had always suspected that there was something wrong with the situation. This, along with the reasons he gave us for our actions, clarifies why. Considering the sounds we heard from the small house that one night Diego and I had followed Riley, it occurred to me that if Victoria was only out to avenge her dead mate. Where did Riley fit in to all of this?

My eyes widened as realization struck me. "She's playing Riley."

"I think so too, but what can we do about it?" Diego took a step closer to me then grabbed my hands and held them gently in his. "We're together now, we're not going to fight, and we can go out and discover what the world has to offer for ourselves."

A throat being unnecessarily cleared from somewhere behind us caused me to giggle. "Um Diego, we aren't totally alone. Fred defected also and asked if we would like to join his coven?"

Diego's bright ruby eyes widened and became thoughtful. "Oh, sounds good to me, safety in numbers right. We needs to stop by the Cullens house first though, let them know what our plans are so they don't worry, they seem like the type to worry."

"How do we know we can trust these Cullens?" asked Fred incredulously.

Diego blinked in amazement several times before shrugging his shoulders and answering. "They disproved several theories that we knew otherwise, like burning in the sun, holy water, garlic, turning into bats, all lies. Moreover, they didn't kill me on sight. It's just a feeling I have, we can trust them."

I nodded apprehensively at the thought of entering the enemies' home, which was a little frightening. Apparently, they weren't the enemy; they never were…it had all been a lie. This Victoria only thought of us as her measly little puppets to exact revenge against those that were only defending themselves.

Diego tugged on my hand, pulling me from my thoughts and leading me into the forest, Fred trailed behind us silently. We veered away from the rest of the bloodthirsty pack, heading off in a slightly southwest direction. I relished in the hold Diego had on my hand, it was warm, strong, and caring, and I loved every second that my hand was in his.

We broke through the forest and the thick overhead canopy, into an open field with a large white house on the other side of the small stream that ran through the center of the field. It looked like a house out of one of my period novels; maybe it was from the early 1900's. Diego continued to lead us towards the house, not once did he release my hand, even when we had to jump over the stream. He then guided us over to the back porch where he sat down and pulled me down to the step next to him. Fred leaned up against the railing and waited. We waited for quite awhile, the sky was starting to darken overhead when finally there was sound was ruffling branches to the north.

"God, those Volturi guys give me the creeps!" echoed a voice without a bell chime to it.

My head shot up to see eight figures emerging from the woods. Seven had bright yellow eyes and one had rich brown ones, only one of the eight had a heartbeat. Upon hearing the moist pumping of a nearby heartbeat, we all tensed and personally, venom flooded my mouth.

"Whoa, the little man is here!" shouted a rather large, dark haired vampire. I glanced at him then back to Diego, I arched an eyebrow while his head dropped down and shook from side to side. I glanced back up to see the big bear of man approach us.

I tensed as he drew closer and closer to us, a smile on his face but his size was intimidating. He walked right up to Diego and patted him on the back. "Hey Diego, glad to see you're back, and you brought a couple friends."

Diego flashed to his feet but kept my hand firmly in his. "This is Bree, the girl I told you about," he smiled and nodded at me then nudged his head toward our other companion. "That's Fred. We've sort of made a coven and we're going to head out on our own."

I let Diego and Fred talk amongst themselves with the big guy and I surveyed the coven now surrounding us. There was a tiny girl with black hair bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet and next to her was a guy with blond hair who was covered with scars. There was also a kindly looking woman with auburn hair and she watched us with a huge smile on her face, beside her was another blond man about an inch shorter than the first and he looked like he should be heading a church. Close to them was a leggy female with long blond hair and she had her arms crossed over her chest and was glaring at the vampire version of the hulk.

Lastly, was a tall, gangly guy with reddish hair that stared at all of us intently just watching, his arms were wrapped around the human tightly and possessively. The human was a frail looking girl that looked like she would trip over her own feet and she was hugging the vampire's arms even more securely to her.

Victoria wanted us to kill this little human for her. She didn't look like she would put up much of a fight but of course; she has a whole coven to protect her. Why in the world would they put their lives on the line for a puny human girl?

"Because she's my mate and vampires mate for life," the gangly one growled and his words were terse, causing me to flinch slightly and I clung tighter to Diego. So, this was the mind reader I was told about. He nodded in reply to my unspoken question.

I bit the inside of my cheek, pondering over the questions I wanted to ask him and where to start. "Is it true that Victoria's mate tried to kill this human so you killed him instead? Is it also true that she created us to do her dirty work?"

He sighed somewhat forlornly. "Yes on both accounts but we got her in the end. She left all of you to the majority of us while Bella and I were in hiding, Riley and Victoria showed up and I ended them."

I felt my eyes widen as I stared at him in shock. He took out Riley and our creator, impressive! He bowed his head slightly, acknowledging my praise. I glanced over to see Diego and Fred were now talking to the other three males from the other coven; both Diego and Fred wore huge smiles. Did I miss something?

"Diego?" I whispered into his shoulder quietly.

He turned and looked at me then grabbed me around the shoulders and pulled me too him. "They've been telling us about another way of life if we are willing to take it. We can live off animal blood, which is why their eyes are golden. They suggest we leave the area for several years so we can avoid anyone that might recognize us. They also have family in Alaska we can visit as well if we are seriously interested in learning the alternative life style. They consider us a friend now, or at least, not a threat, which is a good thing in a world that's so new to us."

The words he shot out stupefied me. Was there really another way to live? I didn't have to kill people just to survive. "I'll have to think about it, maybe do some talking to see what you two think."

Diego nodded happily and his embrace tightened. "I agree we'll have to think about it. Moreover, they are right about leaving the area. I was thinking about heading north, maybe east to Montana. Now that we know the sun won't torch us, I want to spend as much time in the warming rays as possible."

He wiggled his eyebrows at me, causing me to gaze at him inquisitively. What was that wiggle all about? The blonde-haired, scared one and the mind reader groaned in unison and rolled their eyes. I looked at them quizzically but neither would tell me, they just turned their face away from me and played innocent.

"How about we head out now?" Fred asked casually with a small smile.

Diego and I nodded happily. I was personally excited to go start our lives anew. No longer having to worry that one of my coven members would kill me because they felt like it, not having to follow the orders of those who lied to us about nearly everything, or suspecting the worst in everybody. I was finally free to make my own decisions, do things I want to do, such as who I want to like. I wonder if Diego was having feelings for me as well and how strong were they?

"Yes, lets," with wide smiles and free souls we said our goodbyes and promised to visit soon, probably for the wedding. We slowly walked away, heading north into the thick forest.

I walked ahead of Diego and Fred enjoying the sparse rays of sun as it broke through the canopy, casting diamonds to dance around on the leaves. I felt euphoric. Diego was able to save Fred and me from a fate that would have led to our deaths because the Cullen's saved him from the same imminent fate. Now, the three of us were on our own, heading into the unknown to discover what the world had in store for us, and we were doing it together.

I spun around and walked backwards, smiling at my two companions, they smiled back happily. We were a coven, no, a family that rose from the ashes of Victoria's evil scheme. We dared to challenge the ones in power and came out on top, for the two main problems were now dead. We asked ourselves 'do we dare'…and we did…now we are free…to live our own lives.


End file.
